Anne Zieger is veteran healthcare consultant and analyst with 20 years of industry experience. Zieger formerly served as editor-in-chief of FierceHealthcare.com and her commentaries have appeared in dozens of international business publications, including Forbes, Business Week and Information Week. She has also contributed content to hundreds of healthcare and health IT organizations, including several Fortune 500 companies. Contact her at @ziegerhealth on Twitter or visit her site at Zieger Healthcare.

Even the authors admit that the following study has got flaws, given that respondents weren’t randomly selected and some vendors screened out by its design. Nonetheless, new EMR satisfaction research by the American Academy of Family Practice gives us some interesting stats to consider.

The study, which was published in the November/December issue of its Family Practice Management journal, draws on 3,088 responses from AAFP members, who responded to a series of questions regarding which EMRs they used and how comfortable they were with those EMRs. Respondents reported using a total of 160 named EMRs, but the study dropped 129 which were used by 12 or fewer practices in an effort to simplify the results, leaving 31 systems for analysis.

Not too surprisingly, EMRs that were ranked easy to use were largely the same ones which got high satisfaction ratings. Topping that list was Point and Click EHR at nearly 80 percent, followed by Amazing Charts, Practice Fusion, Praxis, SOAPware, Aprima, MEDENT,eMDs, HealthConnect, Vista CPRS, with Care360 EHR rounding out the bottom of the top 10 at roughly 47 percent.

The only surprise the authors highlighted came in response to a question asking which EMRs helped doctors see more patients or go home earlier than they could with paper charts. In that case, Praxis stood out, with doctors who agreed hitting about 80 percent. The number who agreed for the next on the list, SOAPware, fell immediately to just over 40 percent, with the other players falling even lower on the scale.

Even with its deliberate statistical laxity — authors described their intent as being more of an “advice from colleagues” format — this certainly offers some stats to chew on. In particular, I’d love to know what Praxis is doing right. After all, when it comes right down to it, productivity is king.